Once you have a good understanding of what services and programs already exist in your community and what the desired solutions are, you can begin to think of ways to fill in the gaps of what is needed. Research will be a key method for finding out what strategies could potentially work in your neighborhood. This will involve both gathering information on promising practices that other communities have implemented as well as analyzing the research about what is needed to improve outcomes for children and families. Local data, experience and wisdom should then inform what strategies would be most effective in your community specifically. The data you collect through the needs assessment and the asset mapping (Using Data to Achieve Results) will help you to identify and prioritize the strategies that would best meet the needs of your community. For example, through your asset mapping you may find that there are already existing programs in your community that are operating on a small scale but having a significant impact on the population being served. Taking that strategy to a larger scale might be what is needed to impact the conditions that your community is interested in.
When researching what has worked in other communities, the following questions can help you best assess whether these practices would meet your community’s needs:
43 What activities and programs did other communities use to achieve their results?
• Are the other communities you are looking at focused on the same results that you are?
• Do the interventions you are considering match with what residents say that want and need?
• How did communities work together to implement these programs?
• What evidence exists to show these programs have been effective? Is there any available evaluation data? Are these programs supported by other research on improving outcomes?
• What resources did communities draw on to support these programs?
The three tools Researching Promising Practices[Appendix],Programs and Practices Assessment
[Appendix] and Selecting Your Strategies [Appendix] can help you create an inventory of promising practices. The Researching Promising Practices [Appendix] tool will help you to develop questions to critically review and evaluate the information you gather. The Programs and Practices Assessment[Appendix] tool will allow you to describe the elements of each program or activity by compiling information such as location, population served and number of volunteers available. The Selecting Your Strategies [Appendix] tool will help you to determine what programs are already in existence and what programs and activities may be needed.
As you do your research, keep in mind your community’s unique needs. Are there differences between other neighborhoods and yours such as demographics, geographic location and the kinds of resources available? These kinds of differences could have a large impact on whether certain programs would work the same or be as effective in your community. For example, what has been proven to be effective in an urban community might not work the same way in a rural community. However, even with these differences, there may be components of other interventions that you could draw on to inform your own decisions.
Increasing attention to “evidence-based practice” can have a significant impact on the way communities select interventions or programs. Evidence-based practice typically refers to programs, services and policies that have empirical evidence through randomized control studies. Focusing on interventions with a strong evidence base has helped many communities achieve better results while also attracting the support of public and private funders and key community stakeholders like local businesses. However, while it is always important to consider the evidence that supports particular programs or practices, remember that a comprehensive action plan should contain comprehensive strategies that reflect the unique needs and resources in your community.
Communities should therefore feel comfortable using the best research available when making the case for why certain strategies and interventions could improve outcomes. In many cases, it has not been possible to do a large scale evaluation of a program using a randomized control group and you may find that one of your proposed programs is not
“evidence-based” as typically defined. However, there might be other data that demonstrates its effectiveness. For example, data from pre- and post-program evaluations is one way of showing whether or not a program has effectively produced positive outcomes for participants. Looking at what the research says about how to impact child and family outcomes could also inform your decision-making.
As you evaluate at different interventions, keep in mind the following:
• What gaps in services and resources were revealed through your needs assessment and asset mapping? • What existing strategies, if expanded or further resourced, could fill those gaps?
• What interventions has the community identified as solutions?
• What does the research say about the challenges and opportunities that impact your results?
• Are there common themes and recommendations in the research that support your proposed interventions? • What evidence-based practices have been proven to achieve the results you are seeking?
• Have those practices been shown to work with populations that are similar to those in your community? • Have they been shown to work in neighborhoods that have characteristics like yours?
• Are there common elements that have made these practices successful? How would your interventions incorporate those elements?
• What kind of community infrastructure and capacity does the research suggest needs to be in place to ensure success?
• What resources would be needed to replicate the practice, bring it to scale in the community and sustain it over time?